Intuition is defined as the ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning. Where does intuition come from? Can it be trusted? How can someone tune in to their intuition? To address these questions, we are talking to business leaders, coaches, mental health experts, authors, and anyone who is an authority on “How to Get In Touch With Your Intuition And When To Trust Your Intuition When Making Decisions.”
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Susanne Arens.
Susanne Arens is an evidential psychic medium and award-winning author. Her groundbreaking work inspires, comforts, and sparks curiosity. In her book, There Is No DEATH: Evidence of the Spirit World, she explores intuition, how to identify different intuitive abilities, and how to deepen trust in inner guidance and spiritual awareness. Susanne helps people explore subjects that haven’t always been discussed openly. Susanne also provides visual evidence that supports the existence of the unseen.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Since I was a young girl, I have experienced powerful déjà vu moments that I now recognize as psychic premonitions. Throughout my life, I have repeatedly known about future events before they occurred, including foreseeing injuries, illnesses, and even impending deaths. My intuitive insights have been confirmed time and again through persistence validation, which has clearly demonstrated the reliability of my psychic abilities and intuitive guidance. After honing my gifts over the years, I now understand why these experiences happen, and I help others recognize and understand their own intuitive abilities.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I’m not sure I can say ‘favorite’, but I can share the most impactful. The hardest lesson I learned in life was to trust my intuition, even when the medical professionals who are supposed to have the answers tell you something different. Because I did not trust in my own intuition, it cost me the life of my daughter.
I was told I was pregnant with my first daughter the morning I was supposed to have a full hysterectomy. The pregnancy stopped me from having the surgery and enabled me to experience the best part of life: raising children. I wasn’t supposed to be able to carry her to full term and was told she would be a defective baby with medical issues. The doctors recommended I have the pregnancy terminated, but I adamantly said, “No, I’m keeping her!” I had already fallen in love with her, and I was willing to accept her no matter what it entailed.
What I didn’t realize was the journey I was about to embark on. I was bedridden at five months. My body kept trying to abort the pregnancy, but she hung on, and so did I. The day came when my doctor said I could get out of bed and unplug from the hospital monitoring devices. This meant no more daily injections in my legs, no more wires connecting me to the hospital monitoring system, and no more being restricted to the bed with only two-minute showers every other day. I was free. I took the opportunity to run some errands. Prior to being bedridden, I had hated taking time to put gas in my car, standing in line at the post office, getting the oil changed on my car, and other mundane tasks. Now, I was excited to do them all. As the day unfolded, so did the amount of pain I was in, so I drove myself directly to my OBGYN’s office. They did an exam and told me everything was fine, but it wasn’t. Later that day, the pain increased, so I went directly to the hospital for help. They performed a minor exam. They also told me everything was fine and I should go home and rest. They told me I was overreacting because I was a first-time mother.
Later that night, I found myself in so much pain I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even swear; that says a lot. My husband called the hospital to tell them we were on the way and that I was having problems. Unfortunately, we were experiencing a strong snowstorm, and the mere act of driving to the hospital became extremely challenging as we skated around on the roads. Fortunately, we arrived safely, and I felt the baby and I were going to be okay. That emotion was short lived. Because of the snowstorm, there were no doctors at the hospital, and it was going to be a while before they could get there. Then, as the head nurse was examining me and the baby, she turned to me and said, “Why didn’t you come in sooner? I am having a hard time hearing the baby’s heartbeat and I have doubts the baby is going to make it.” At hearing this, I lost it and I started to shake and cry. I told her I had been there and was sent home. I was beside myself. I had gone through so much to bring this little girl into the world, and now they were telling me she was not going to make it. I was filled with pain and anger. Finally, a surgeon arrived and performed an emergency C-section.
I am grateful we didn’t live in the 1900s or earlier; my tombstone would have read, “Here lies Susanne Arens, died in childbirth 11.19.1991.” We both were released from the hospital approximately a week later. I was so relieved to have my perfect little girl home and in my arms. However, I soon discovered it was going to be a short experience. On March 4, I woke up with a terrible feeling that there was something seriously wrong with her. Her pediatrician was the head of the pediatrics department at one of our city hospitals; he came highly recommended. I made an appointment that day to take her to see him. While we were waiting in the lobby, the office assistant approached me to say, “We’ve been watching you with your baby. It has been so beautiful to watch; it’s easy to see the deep love you have for her. We’ve actually never seen someone so connected with their child like you are.” We were then taken back to see the doctor. He did a quick exam and told me everything was fine. I insisted that she wasn’t. I told him that I didn’t think she was breathing well, and I sensed something was really, really wrong. He reassured me that she was fine and I was overacting because I was a first-time mother.
The next morning, she passed away. The autopsy showed that she had fluid in her lungs and she died from pneumonia. I was devastated and lost my will to live; my life ended when hers did. Life became a routine of work and sleep. I wanted to end my life, I felt my life ended when hers did. It took many years before I could forgive myself for not doing more for her…for not listening to my intuition.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I can’t point to just one book, podcast or movie that has influenced me, there are so many. Because of the journey I went through bringing my first daughter into the world, only to lose her later, it started me on a journey I had never dreamed I’d travel. I read numerous books, watch countless shows, and in the past several years, my research included podcasts. The subject matter include near death experiences, the spiritual world, the paranormal, and intuition. All these resources have helped me to have a better understanding of who I am, what I am, and how I can help others.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Let’s begin with a definition of terms so that each of us and our readers are on the same page. What exactly does intuition mean? Can you explain?
For me, the term ‘intuition’ can sometimes be interchangeable with being psychic. We all have intuition. Some people are more in tune with theirs than others. Example: You might have been running an errand in town, and on your way home, you get the thought that you should take a different path home than you usually travel, so you re-route your path. You then get home, and turn on the television, you discover that there is an accident on the road you usually travel, blocking traffic.
How would you define common sense?
My understanding of “common sense” is the ability to use life experiences and knowledge learned to make a calculated decision. However, what feels like common sense to one person may be different than another person’s. We develop our own version of what we consider to be common sense, based on our unique experiences and life lessons.
Are intuition and common sense related?
I would not interchange intuition with common sense. However, I believe they can work together to aid us in making sound, informed decisions.
How are they different from each other?
Intuition is made unconsciously; it comes from within, often making no sense to us in the moment. We often refer to it as getting a ‘gut feeling’. While common sense is made by using our life experiences and the active process of thinking through the situation.
What are the positive aspects of being in touch with your intuition? Can you give a story or example to explain what you mean?
If you can learn to trust your intuition, it can save your life — as it has mine and my family’s on several occasions. Unfortunately, if you are analytical or tend to overthink, trusting that inner knowing can be difficult.
On numerous occasions, I knew my daughters, Olivia and Raquel, were ill. At the time, I considered it ‘mothers’ intuition’. I would even know what they were ill from, strep throat, the flu, ear infection, etc. I’d take them to the doctor, and each time they would perform the rapid testing, and each time it would come back negative. After losing Morgann, I learned to stand my ground. I began insisting that the doctors trust what I was sensing and prescribe the necessary medication to help them recover. Each time, they later called to tell me that the formal lab results had come back, and that my initial instinct had been correct.
One time, my youngest daughter became extremely ill, and it scared me deeply. I knew the feeling; it was the same I experienced the day before my daughter, Morgann, passed away. I immediately took her to the children’s hospital, but the doctor who examined her told me she was fine and looked at me as if I were overreacting. I was so upset that we left, and I then took her directly to her pediatrician, whom I begged to listen to me. Fortunately, she did. She ordered additional tests, including blood work, and discovered that my daughter had a staph infection in the pericardial sac around her heart. She could have died if we had not started her on extremely strong medication immediately. The infection was so serious that they recommended she be admitted to the hospital and placed her on IV antibiotics.
Are there negative aspects to being guided by intuition? Can you give a story or example to explain what you mean?
Yes, sometimes your intuition can warn you of impending danger, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. One morning, I received a strong inner knowing that the Waldo Fire was heading straight for us, even though the Fire Chief, Mayor, and other professionals told us otherwise. I was having a panic attack, and I had such a bad feeling that something terrible was about to happen. I was unable to stop the fire, but I was able to get to my sister and her family in time for them to evacuate, as the fire came flowing over the hills, like fast-moving lava, straight for their neighbor. We too had to evacuate from our home with only a 30-minute notice. We were all running for our lives. In the end, two people lost their lives, and thousands of homes were burned to the ground. It was one of the darkest days in Colorado Springs history.
One of the biggest challenges with trusting your intuition, is getting others to believe you, and not being labeled as “crazy.”
Can you give some guidance about when one should make a decision based on their intuition and when one should use other methods to come to a decision?
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Sometimes, trusting your intuition makes no logical sense, yet it feels right. Knowing when to trust it can be difficult; it often requires a leap of faith. Learning to trust your instincts and follow that gut feeling (which is your intuition) takes time and practice. The first thing I recommend is to write down what you’re feeling and what your gut is telling you. Then take time to do research to see if what you’re feeling makes logical sense, based on what you discover in your research. This process allows you to compare your intuitive sense with logical information.
As I mentioned earlier, I believe intuition and logic can work together to aid us in making sound, informed decisions. Sometimes our intuition can help us see things in a different light or provide us with options we hadn’t thought of.
Be patient with yourself. Developing trust in your intuition often happens through trial and error; it doesn’t happen overnight.
From your experience or perspective, what are some of the common barriers that hold someone back from trusting their intuition?
Fear of being wrong has to be among the top reasons. No one wants to be embarrassed or say something that could cause harm. I also believe we are taught that all decisions must be made based on rational thinking and on the evidence; intuition is neither. The belief in UFOs/UAPs is a prime example of this. Another is the belief in God, although I’ve not yet personally met him, I do have a strong belief that he exists.
Here is the central question of our discussion. What are five methods that someone can use to become more in touch with their intuition?
1 . Learn to Meditate
Quiet the noise around you and in your mind. Find the inner peace that will allow you to more easily connect with your intuition. There are several ways a person can learn to do this. For some, it might take a few days to master, while others may take a couple of months. Enjoy the journey.
2 . Start writing down those fleeting thoughts
Start writing down those fleeting thoughts that randomly pop into your head, whether they come while you’re awake, daydreaming, or even while you’re sleeping. By documenting them, you’ll be able to track whether any of those thoughts later make sense or actually take place.
3 . Learn to pay attention to what your body is feeling
When I get a strong premonition, its a sign my intuition has picked up on something important. I’ve learned that when I am feeling as though I’m having a ‘panic attack’, it can indicate impending danger, and I need to act quickly. Your body might give you other types of signals. For example; you may start to tremble, get a sudden headache, or find it hard to sit still. Often you won’t be able to rationalize why you’re feeling this way. Write them down and see if they correspond to something that’s about to happen.
4 . Practice using your intuition by applying it to small, everyday decisions
Think of it as a fun mental guessing game. For example; Watch someone who is leaving a store, and try to guess which vehicle they will walk to. Or use a deck of cards, hold them upside down so you can’t see the numbers, then try to guess which card you’ll turn over next. Or, when the phone rings, try to guess who’s calling.
5 . Reach out to the spirit world
For some people, this last suggestion may be difficult because it requires faith and trust in your Spirit Guides and loved ones in spirit. If you feel unsure or don’t know whether you can trust what your intuition is telling you, you can reach out to those in the spirit world. They are often very willing to help. Share with them the specific issue you’re seeking guidance about, and ask for a clear sign. Signs can sometimes be subtle. It might be a brief flicker of light in the room, or a few words you hear someone say on the radio or on a television show. Even if what they’re talking about has nothing to do with your question, the words may still resonate deeply and feel exactly like the answer you needed to hear.
One gentleman I know shared a story with me about asking his father in spirit for a sign. He knew his father loved peaches, so he asked his father to show him something related to peaches, as a sign that he’s around and listening. The next day, while he was driving down the road, a large truck suddenly crossed the street in front of him. On the side of the truck was a large image of peaches. In that moment, he instantly knew it was the sign he had asked for.
You are a person of significant influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Honestly, I believe people need to understand the role they play in their own lives. Too many expect others to make decisions for them, becoming passengers on the bus of life, when they should be the bus driver. They have the power to make their life what they want it to be, not what others say it will be. People often blame others for the situations they find themselves in, when in reality, it’s because of the choices they have made. Learning to think differently about the role they play and recognizing that their attitude, self-belief, and trust in their intuition can make all the difference.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
I had to think about this one for a while, but I finally landed on Andrew Gentile. His approach to content creation focuses on critical thinking and scientific reasoning. He works hard to dispel misinformation while keeping his audience entertained, and I really appreciate his unique blend of humor. I first discovered him on TikTok; his channel is called ‘The Why Files’.
Andrew’s views on spirituality emphasize understanding emotional challenges and building resilience through a compassionate approach. He advocates for a collaborative process that aligns with people’s values, helping them navigate their spiritual and emotional journeys, while backing it with worldly evidence.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Yes, here are links to my online platforms.
Here is the link to the video I created — https://youtu.be/TSGHiH0Oyu0?si=VskmErkxnoh3vO8E
Thank you for sharing these insights!
